FAQ
Find answers to many of the common questions here. Of course, feel free to contact us if you are wondering about something else!
What does "Organic" mean?
What is "Fair Trade certification"?
Where does chocolate come from?
Why is it better to support companies who sell fair-trade chocolate?
What does "Organic" mean?
Organic foods are produced according to certain production standards. For crops, it means they were grown without the use of conventional pesticides, artificial fertilizers, human waste, or sewage sludge, and that they were processed without ionizing radiation or food additives. For animals, it means they were reared without the routine use of antibiotics and without the use of growth hormones. In most countries, organic produce must not be genetically modified.
Organic food production is legally regulated. Currently, the United States, the European Union, Japan and many other countries require producers to obtain organic certification in order to market food as organic.
Historically, organic farms have been relatively small family-run farms — which is why organic food was once only available in small stores or farmers' markets. However, since the early 1990s organic food has had growth rates of around 20% a year, far ahead of the rest of the food industry, in both developed and developing nations. As of today organic food accounts for 1-2% of food sales worldwide. Future growth is expected to range from 10-50% annually depending on the country. For more info visit: http://organicconsumers.org or http://www.ccof.org
Back to the top
What is "Fair Trade certification"?
Fair Trade certification is a market-based model of international trade that benefits over one million farmers and farm workers in 58 developing countries across Africa, Asia and Latin America. Fair Trade certification enables consumers to vote for a better world with their dollars, simply by looking for the Fair Trade Certified label on the products they buy.
Fair Trade Certified agricultural products including coffee, tea and herbs, cocoa and chocolate, fresh fruit, sugar, rice, and spices (vanilla) are currently available at over 35,000 retail establishments in the U.S.
Fair Trade empowers farmers and farm workers to lift themselves out of poverty by developing the business skills necessary to compete in the global marketplace. By guaranteeing minimum floor prices and social premiums, Fair Trade enables producers to invest in their farms and communities and protect the environment. But Fair Trade is much more than a fair price.
Fair Trade principles include:
- Fair prices: Democratically organized farmer groups receive a guaranteed minimum floor price and an additional premium for certified organic products. Farmer organizations are also eligible for pre-harvest credit.
- Fair labor conditions: Workers on Fair Trade farms enjoy freedom of association, safe working conditions, and living wages. Forced child labor is strictly prohibited.
- Direct trade: Importers purchase from Fair Trade producer groups as directly as possible, eliminating unnecessary middlemen and empowering farmers to strengthen their organizations and become competitive players in the global economy.
- Democratic and transparent organizations: Fair Trade farmers and farm workers decide democratically how to use their Fair Trade revenues.
- Community development: Fair Trade farmers and farm workers invest Fair Trade premiums in social and business development projects like scholarship programs, quality improvement trainings, and organic certification.
- Environmental sustainability: The Fair Trade certification system strictly prohibits the use of genetically modified organisms (GMOs), promotes integrated farm management systems that improve soil fertility, and limits the use of harmful agrochemicals in favor of environmentally sustainable farming methods that protect farmers' health and preserve valuable ecosystems for future generations.
To read the complete standards for all Fair Trade products and to learn more about the process by which they are created, please visit: http://www.transfairusa.org
Back to the top
Where does chocolate come from?
Chocolate is derived from almond-shaped beans which are harvested from pod-like fruits that grow directly out of the trunks of trees. The tropical cacao tree (Theobroma Cacao) grows near the equator in the shade of larger trees in the rainforest. It is indigenous to South America but now grows all over the world. The introduction of cacao trees to the west coast of Africa happened around 1600. Now Africa claims 80% of worldwide cacao trade, producing 8,000 tons of cacao beans each year.
Cacao beans are the "raw" form of chocolate. The Mayans and Aztecs called them "the food of the Gods". They used them for rituals, enjoyed hot drinks made with them AND also used them as currency. When the Spaniards captured the great emperor of Mexico City, Montezuma, it was said that he had 960,000,000 beans stored in his warehouse.
The Spaniards took this new discovery back to Europe where it was ground and mixed with sugar. Drinks made with it became very fashionable throughout Europe. "Cocoa" was English slang for cacao. In 1828, a Dutch chemist named Coenraad Johannes Van Houten, patented a process that squeezed the oil out of cacao leaving the "cake", which was ground into a fine powder. The powder was then mixed with alkaline salts so that it would mix well with water. This became known "cocoa powder".
In 1867, Henri Nestle', a Swiss chemist, and Daniel Peter, a Swiss chocolate manufacturer, discovered a process to add powdered milk to chocolate, thereby creating the infamous "milk chocolate". While this is by far the most popular form of chocolate worldwide, people are rediscovering the health and taste benefits of chocolate in its purist form. For more information on the history of chocolate and its health benefits enter "health benefits of dark chocolate" into any search engine and you will find numerous websites.
Back to the top
Why is it better to support companies who sell fair-trade chocolate?
If you buy from companies that only sell fair-trade chocolate, then you know that you are NOT supporting "slave labor" in Africa. The majority of the organic, fair-trade cacao comes from co-ops in South and Central America, with some farms now converting in Ghana and a few in South East Asia. There is a lot of information on the web about this pressing issue, and Nestle is the first company actually being taken to court in February 2008 in Los Angeles for their unfair labor practices in Africa. This is only the beginning. Many more giants of industry will be called to task.
A 1998 report from UNICEF, the United Nations Children's Fund, concluded that some Ivory Coast farmers use enslaved children, many of them from the poorer neighboring countries of Mali, Burkina Faso, Benin and Togo. A report by the International Labour Organization based in Geneva, Switzerland, also found that trafficking in children is widespread in West Africa.
The practice first reached a wider public in 2001 with a British television documentary, Slavery: A global investigation, made by Kate Blewett and Brian Woods. It claimed that 90% of Ivory Coast cocoa plantations use forced labor. A ship was found near West Africa allegedly carrying child slaves.
Here are three organizations (out of many) that are working to change these deplorable conditions:
http://www.globalexchange.org/countries/africa
http://vision.ucsd.edu/~kbranson/stopchocolateslavery
http://www.laborrights.org
http://www.sweetearthchocolates.com
Back to the top